Book 1

Once There Were Heroes

by Philip C. Quaintrell

Published 4 September 2023

THE GODS ARE DEAD.

IN THEIR ABSENCE, THERE CAN BE ONLY CHAOS. ONLY WAR.

AND THEY ARE NOT ALL THAT HAS FADED FROM THE WORLD OF VERDA...
 

Once there were heroes. Brave men and women who showed their quality to be above the rest. Those whose deeds earned them the heart of a dragon. Those whose courage and strength resonated with the unborn, who, in their eggs, can wait thousands of years for a warrior worthy of them.

These heroes rose up on young battlefields and defended the weak and oppressed across all of Erador. They did so because they were inspired. They had only to look up and see.

Dragons Riders!

The last noble warriors in the realm. Only heroes can embolden the ordinary. For centuries, millennia, the Dragon Riders galvanised generation after generation, adding Riders to their ranks, birthing dragons from their eggs.

But there are no more heroes. War with the Andarens is like nothing the Riders, nor the armies of Erador, have ever faced. In the place of heroes there are only soldiers now. Fodder for the machine of war.

This time of twilight is set to be the crowning hour of the dark, when the light is losing its grip. There are those who have been waiting, biding their time in the shadows while the heroes of Verda die out. They worship something ancient. Something forgotten by myth and legend. Something evil.

It falls on a few to keep back that darkness. A few who must rise without inspiration and prove themselves worthy.


Book 2

ONLY ONE CAN END THE WAR.

HE STANDS BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, A SAVIOUR AND A DESTROYER TO BOTH.

DRAGONS AND AEGRES WILL FALL.

BUT ONE CAN TURN THE TIDE.


One who stands in the shadow of kings. Such has been seen by the doomed. The weight of ten thousand lives and all the realm besides now sits on Joran’s shoulders. So much has already been sacrificed to bring him to the ancient doors of Drakanan, where he might take on the mantle of Dragon Rider and usher in a new age of heroes.

But a time of dragons is not all that has been seen…

The days are shadowed by approaching night. The war to devour all wars has come again. He who lies entombed in the dark will rise and the fires with him. Death cannot hold him.

The Skaramangians hold to this, their fingers pulling the strings of war to hide their dark deeds. In past and present they work towards a future that will reset the world. Evil will be made manifest in that world, and there remains no power in all of Verda capable of preventing it.

And so the few, those who would be heroes, must take the road to madness if they are to prepare for the inevitable war. It is not a road they can all survive…